As summer returns to the borough, again without basketball at Barclays, the Nets find themselves at a bit of a crossroads.
This season was about going all-in on a championship run, but Brooklyn never looked like a serious contender. Now, general manager Billy King must decide whether to bring the gang back to take another crack at it, or start figuring out another route to a title, for which the Nets’ Russian owner is evidently willing to pay whatever it takes.
Any discussion of the Nets’ future starts with last year’s big Boston signings. The Nets got about what they paid for with Paul Pierce, but almost nothing from a way-past-his-prime Kevin Garnett. Unfortunately, Pierce is the one free to leave Brooklyn this summer, while Garnett is still under contract. This is all essentially moot: it is now clear the two elder statesmen can’t be relied on to put the Nets over the top.
Shooting guard Joe Johnson settled into a nice role as an efficient outside threat. Joe Cool rebounded from shooting 42.3 percent from the field and 37.5 from behind the arc last season to make 45.4 percent from the field and 40.1 percent on threes (the second-best average of his career, trailing only the god-like 47.8 percent he shot from downtown in 2004–2005). Sure, his contract is outrageous, but Nets fans can feel good about having Joe back next season.
The same can’t be said for point guard Deron Williams. After two underwhelming seasons in Brooklyn, it is looking more and more like D-Will’s ankles are shot and he is never going to be the elite player he was in Utah.
Williams’s struggles were softened by a resurgent season from journeyman Shaun Livingston, who fit in nicely with the Nets’ small-ball lineup as a rangy, athletic playmaker. But Livingston might cash in on his successful season by signing elsewhere. And even if he stays with the Nets, his upside is limited by not being a capable outside shooter.
Livingston’s success, however, provides a template for what the Nets — and I’m saying this for the second year in a row — should be seeking this offseason: athleticism. Brooklyn will have no shortage of shooters for the 2014–15 season: along with Johnson, Marcus Thornton is set to be back, as is Mirza Teletovic. With Brook Lopez returning from the foot injury that ended his season in December, he should pair nicely with rookie standout Mason Plumlee down low, along with Andray Blatche potentially staying on for another year.
But Brooklyn won’t be an elite team in the NBA without some measure of exceptional athleticism. Think about the NBA’s best teams. All of them have at least a couple players with an explosiveness that the Nets simply don’t have on the roster.
How Brooklyn adds that element is not immediately clear. But if they want to improve next year, they have to think big. There are likely still some teams willing to take a chance on Deron Williams regaining his old form. At this point, the Nets ridding themselves of D-Will’s contract in exchange for a first-round draft pick or two would be worth considering.
Cutting bait on failed ideas and doing some regrouping could pay off sooner than staying the course. This summer wouldn’t be a bad time to start.
Matt Spolar is a nearly 6-foot-1 journalist with a middling high school basketball career who is sure the Nets win thanks to team’s top-tier guards.
